A couple of days ago I received an email from the other side of the International Date Line. The email was about a Hammerschmidt stencil that was up for auction.
When I looked at the auction photos, I started to wonder what other Hammerschmidt horns were being sold around the world at this moment. It didn’t take too long before I happened to come across this alto in Sao Paulo.
Source: produto.mercadolivre.com.br
Although I don’t read Portuguese, a translation program was able to fill in some of the bits that I wasn’t able to make out. Near as I can figure, this is roughly what the ad says:
Eb Alto Saxophone, Very Old
The next line doesn’t make sense to me. It says something about an F# key… Don’t know what though. Anyone know? It reads: Tem chave fá# nos graves/medios, nos agudos vai até fá.
Comes with: Case, Rico Royal Mouthpiece, Claude Lakey 7:3 Mouthpiece, & a Stuff-It.
This saxophone was made in 1956 in Austria by the Hammerschmidt Company.
Sounds divine.
Source: produto.mercadolivre.com.br
After making my way through all the questions that were asked, the really only interesting thing that jumped out at me was that the seller claimed to have communicated with one of the owners of the Hammerschmidt company. Apparently the date in the ad, 1956, is the year of manufacturing that was provided by the Hammerschmidt Company based on the horn’s serial number.
To my knowledge however, I believe the seller has the country of origin wrong. Although the Hammerschmidt Company is now located in Austria, when they made saxophones, they were located in Germany. If the seller were to check the horn, I suspect that Western Germany would be engraved on it.
Source: produto.mercadolivre.com.br
Unfortunately from here on in, the photos are really poor.
I don’t really get it. If you’re trying to sell something, wouldn’t you make some effort to actually show the details?
Source: produto.mercadolivre.com.br
Source: produto.mercadolivre.com.br
Source: produto.mercadolivre.com.br
This Hammerschmidt alto saxophone is listed for R$1,490.00 (Brazil Reais), which at the time of writing is $735.33 US. Now before you get too excited, the seller says he won’t sell to other countries, so you’ll have to be in Brazil to buy this Hammerschmidt for yourself. (Or at least know someone who can take delivery of it for you.)
“Tem chave fá# nos graves/medios, nos agudos vai até fá.”
I believe the person is trying to comment that a) it’s a “straight” chromatic F# key, rather than the “L-shaped” one that’s found on horns like your Mark VI and/or b) it’s got a G# trill key, but he doesn’t know what to call it.
While I don’t speak Portugese, I’m pretty good at transliterating from Google Translate :).